Remarks on Prescription Drug Prices and an Exchange With Reporters

The President. Thank you very much for being here. This is a very big announcement.

We just, as you know, left the military. That was something—generals, admirals, all the top brass—and that was a great morning.

And this is other fantastic news for you, because it's going to be a lowering of medical prices—drug prices, like in the history of our country has never happened before. It's "favored nations," if you know what that means. But we'll talk about it.

Today I'm thrilled to announce that one of the world's largest pharmaceutical manufacturers and one of the best anywhere in the world, Pfizer, has agreed to offer countless prescription medications at major discounts in the United States. It was a result of the most-favored-nation drug pricing order that we established earlier this year.

As you know, the United States was paying sometimes 10 times more than other countries for drugs, and a lot of excuses were made for that. But it went on for many years—many, many years, decades—and it's not going on any longer. We're going to be paying the lowest price now. We're going to be paying whatever the lowest price is. Favored nations. This will save American taxpayers and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

I want to thank Pfizer CEO, Albert Bourla, who is one of the most respected people in the industry and in business generally—I will say that, Albert—for joining us today, along with Secretary—as you know, as—we got a number of Secretaries—Secretary—is Lutnick behind me, I hope? Where's Lutnick?

Vice President James D. "J.D." Vance. He's over here, sir.

Secretary of Commerce Howard W. Lutnick. Right over here.

Vice President Vance. To the right.

The President. You can get over here. I'm looking for Lutnick. [Laughter] Our great—our great secretary of Commerce. Good. I'm glad you're here. You would have been in trouble. [Laughter] Howard Lutnick. Great.

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.; CMS Administrator, Mehmet Oz; Medicare Administrator, Chris Klomp; and the FDA Commissioner, Marty Makary. And I just want to thank them. All they've done—they've been working hard on many, many things.

I think this is one of the biggest medical announcements that this office has ever made, because we're talking about price reductions, as you'll see in a couple of minutes, that are incredible.

For many years, Americans have paid the highest prices anywhere in the world for prescription drugs. They paid far more—10 times, 13 times, 15 times more—than other countries for the exact same product. A major reason is that the American consumers have been subsidizing research and development costs for the entire planet. They put all of that on us, and yet they were the beneficiaries too. So it's being changed as of today.

The United States has just 4 percent of the world's population and consumers, only 13 percent of all prescription drugs. Yet, pharmaceutical companies make 75 percent of their profits from the United States. So think of that. We have 4 percent of the market, 13 percent of prescription drugs, and yet—Albert, I didn't know you were that violent. [Laughter] That's—I'm surprised you're agreeing to this.

Pfizer Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla. I'm getting better. [Laughter]

The President. Come here.

No, he's doing the right thing. Thank you.

And yet, they make 75 percent of their profits from the American customers. So, it's something.

That's why I signed an Executive order combating this practice. And we signed it very happily a little while ago.

Today Pfizer is committing—as will other drug companies as we go through the weeks—but Pfizer is truly one of the biggest in the world and one of the greatest in the world. Today, Pfizer is committing to offer all of their prescription medications to Medicaid, and it will be at the most-favored-nations prices. It's going to have a huge impact on bringing Medicaid costs down like nothing else.

I told you that, in my first term, I was so proud of the fact that, for the first time in 28 years, drug prices came down. And I had a news conference that I explained it was one-tenth of 1 percent. But it was down. And here we're talking about, in one case, over a thousand percent.

This is a critical step forward to our work and to improve health care in hard-working, low-income Americans. Especially, low-income Americans will be helped so greatly.

In addition, Pfizer has agreed to provide some of their most popular current medications to all consumers at heavily discounted prices of anywhere between 50 and even 100 percent. And that's off—that's off the price, and in some cases, even more than that. These drugs will be available for direct purchase online at a website operated by the Federal Government.

We're also announcing that, moving forward, all new medications introduced by Pfizer to the American market will be sold at the reduced, most-favored-nation cost. So we'll be paying, essentially, what other countries are paying, who have been much lower—much, much lower for many, many years.

Furthermore, Pfizer will invest $70 billion to reshore domestic manufacturing facilities. In other words, they're going to bring a lot of their—their facilities to make their drugs and make what they make—their product. They're going to make it in the United States—I appreciate that; $70 billion investment—and fund research and development right here in America.

We're working with other major pharmaceutical companies to secure similar agreements. Everyone understands that the status quo where Americans pay more for drugs—prescription drugs—and they pay more than foreign countries, who take advantage of us in many other ways. Although, not so many anymore. I think we've pretty well got that stopped, right? [Laughter] I think so. We've stopped that, but they took advantage of a lot of other presidents, that I can tell you.

But we're making this pay to be—very unacceptable what they've done in the past. That's why my administration is also taking historic action to investigate the unfair and discriminatory trade practices of other countries that extort our pharmaceutical makers to shift costs onto the American consumer. They say: "No, give us a price, a very low price, and just charge the American consumer. Charge it to the U.S."

The United States is done subsidizing the health care of the rest of the world. It's a big thing. This is—I can't tell you how big this is. And I was all set to go on it first term, but then you had the COVID, and we had a focus on that. But I said, "I want to get back here." So—because this is—you're talking about 14-, 15-, 1,600-percent reductions in some cases.

But, by taking this bold step, we're ending the era of global price gouging at the expense of American families, and we're making America healthy again, which is our—our little theme for the people behind me.

And I want to just ask Secretary Kennedy to come up, and we'll start, and we'll go through it with Oz and Klomp and Bourla and Makary, and we'll go through it. And if you have any questions—

But this is a really big announcement. This is something that most people said was not doable, and other countries are going along, because we told them, "Le-—if you don't go along"—you know, they didn't have to go along, but if they didn't go along, we were going to put extra tariffs on those countries. And we were going to charge them the amount of money that they should be paying for the reduction in costs. So, I think we had a pretty good negotiating position.

So, Bobby, I'd like you to speak about this. And what a great job. And thank you very much.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Mr. President, I want to start by thanking a couple of people who aren't up here: Theo Merkel, Dr. Heidi Overton, who played key roles in this negotiation help—and helped make this happen. And also Inma Hernandez, who's not up here, but John Brook [Brooks; White House correction] and Chris Klomp, who were the people who were negotiating—in some cases, I think, including last night—24 hours without any sleep.

This would not have happened without President Trump's leadership. I told my son last night—we were all under secrecy about this, but I told my son late last night—my 27-year-old son Conor, who is a very liberal Democrat, and I told him this was happening, and he—he just paused for a minute, and he said: "Thank you, Dad. I'm so proud of you."

Because this is something Democrats have wanted for 20 years, Republicans have wanted for 20 years. Everybody said they're going to do it. Nobody has even taken a step towards doing it, and the reason was because it was such a daunting task.

[At this point, Secretary Kennedy continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

Today is about another promise made by President Trump and another promise kept by President Trump to the American people, and it's only just the beginning.

This is all thanks to your unwavering leadership, Mr. President.

The President. Thank you, Bobby.

Secretary Kennedy. Thank you.

The President. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz. There is a fine line between vision and hallucination. [Laughter] People have to follow you for it to be a vision. And, President Trump, you made a lot of people follow you on an idea that most people thought was not possible, even remotely.

And when we have that shared vision—and I'll speak to some of the people who are involved in this process, because it was the incredible effort that gives me great pride to serve in this administration. And the fact that it did not leak is also an issue of pride for us, because these were tough, tough challenges.

[Administrator Oz continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

And for those of you at home who are watching—and I hope there are quite a few—I think this shows just how cool a place it is to work is in this Government. And I take great pride in handing the ball to Chris.

Chris, tell the American people what they have won thanks to your passionate ability to deliver on President Trump's promise.

Deputy Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Medicare Director Chris Klomp. Thanks very much.

The President. Thank you, Chris.

Deputy Administrator Klomp. Thank you, Mr. President. You have enabled something that, as recently as last night, nearly everyone has said was impossible.

And Secretary Kennedy and Administrator Oz, thank you for having trust in us as a negotiating team to drive this forward on behalf of the American people. It is an absolute honor and privilege.

[Deputy Administrator Klomp continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

If you're watching this right now and you have been looking for evidence that this is a president who knows and care abouts you—or cares about you, who is fighting for you, who is fighting for every American, this is exhibit A. This is not an empty promise. It's not platitudes. It's not lacking a plan. These are hard contracts, with teeth, lowering prices now that we will all feel. These are the most significant, historical, substantive, mathematically quantified price reductions in the history of our country and modern-day pharmaceuticals.

I cannot thank you enough for your leadership in enabling this to happen.

The President. Thank you.

Deputy Administrator Klomp. This is an absolute pleasure. The President has showed us that the impossible can be achieved, and that is what's happened today.

God bless America.

The President. Thank you very much, Chris.

Deputy Administrator Klomp. With that in mind——

The President. Great job. Great job.

Deputy Administrator Klomp. ——it is my absolute pleasure to introduce Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer.

Thank you.

Mr. Bourla. Mr. President, what an honor to be here today in this office to announce a landmark agreement. I think it's an historic day.

The President. Is this the coolest office? He has a beautiful office, but the Oval is the coolest, right? [Laughter] What do you think?

Mr. Bourla. I think by far.

The President. Huh?

Mr. Bourla. And I have seen other Presidents' offices. There is nothing like that.

The President. Yes. It's a good office.

Mr. Bourla. Yes. Yes.

So it's an historic day, because I think today we are turning the tide and we are reversing an unfair situation.

For years, other rich nations refused to pay their fair share for the medical innovation. And as a result, Americans had to assume disproportional cost on their shoulders. This situation we all knew is not sustainable. This situation is a situation that many wanted to change, but no one could. This is changing today with this agreement.

[Mr. Bourla continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

I want to thank Secretary Kennedy. I want to thank Secretary Lutnick. Your leadership helped us to pull that together.

[Mr. Bourla addressed Administrator Oz, and they embraced.]

You are the mastermind of everything, and without the brilliant way that you designed the whole thing——

Administrator Oz. Well——

Mr. Bourla. ——we wouldn't be able to make it happen.

Administrator Oz. Blessings.

Mr. Bourla. But you were even more brilliant because you had someone on your team——

Administrator Oz. Yes. That's right.

Mr. Bourla. ——that he was the driving force behind everything. And I don't have words to thank you for your integrity. And it is what you have said: We created trust from day one, and that was the most important thing——

The President. It's true.

Mr. Bourla. ——that allowed us to be able to pull very difficult negotiations.

Of course, also, I want to—to thank the U.S. Trade Representative, who is also heavily engaged, and he's probably the first trade representative that I have seen that cares about our industry and cares to do something about unfair situations out there.

But more than anyone else, Mr. President, I want to thank you——

The President. Thank you very much.

Mr. Bourla. ——for your leadership and, frankly, for your friendship.

The President. Thank you.

Mr. Bourla. Thank you.

The President. Albert, thank you very much. Great job.

Mr. Bourla. Thank you.

The President. Great job.

Commissioner of Food and Drugs Martin A. Makary. Thank you, Mr. President.

The growth of drug spending—that is, the increase in drug pricing—is the fastest and biggest increasing area of health care spending. So today's announcement has incredible implications for health care spending in the United States, and today marks the end—the beginning of the end of the great American rip-off.

And it also marks the beginning of the end of a great American tragedy, something I've seen as a physician at the bedside: patients getting spun up into a financial rage; doing GoFundMe campaigns online; sending repeat reminders asking people to donate; getting their churches to pass the offering plate from pew to pew, Sunday after Sunday, to try to get enough money to pay for a drug in the United States—a drug that's 5 or 10 times more expensive than the same drug in France or Germany or the U.K. People get spun up, and it's a tragedy.

[Commissioner Makary continued his remarks, concluding as follows.]

And the generic company makes their drug in the United States; that application is going to move to the front of the line as well. And if you're going to build a plant in the United States, we're—our FDA inspectors will walk through that plant during the construction phase—something never done before—so that it's ready on day one.

So thank you, Mr. President, for your leadership. They said it couldn't be done, and here we are. Thank you.

The President. Chris, you may want to go up and just show one of the boards about how quickly the price has come down. And these are small examples. We're going to have it over 1,000 percent in some cases. You'll see that during the week. But we just picked out four at random, and you see the kind of numbers.

Bobby and maybe Albert—good.

Deputy Administrator Klomp. We picked four examples, but I want to be totally clear: These are not the only four examples. And as the President mentioned, this is not the only agreement. It is the first. It's a historic agreement. There are many to come, and we're excited to talk about them.

And that means hundreds and hundreds of drugs. We are not exaggerating when we talk about reductions of up to 80 percent. We give you four examples here: One for dermatitis. The new price at MFN results in 80-percent reduction to what's available today. One on postmenopausal osteoporosis—85 percent. Migraines that affect so many Americans—50 percent reductions. Rheumatoid arthritis—something my own mother struggled with—40 percent reductions.

This is about access. This is about ensuring that Americans have access to lifesaving medications. These are real prices. These are net prices. They're not made up. They're not funny numbers.

The President. Thank you very much, Chris. And a great job you've done. Everybody here has been incredible.

We've been standing here talking about the "Make America Healthy Again" a lot lately, and I think our meeting the other day was excellent on a thing called Tylenol. That was a very important meeting. I think that was a very important meeting.

And this—in terms of pricing, I think it's going to be great for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. It's going to be great for everything, because your medicine costs are coming way down.

We have some examples that I think we'll be able to show you next week of over a thousand percent in some cases, where a pill that cost $10 in London was costing $130 in New York and various other places within the United States.

And the same thing with Canada. People would go to Canada, they'd go to Mexico, they'd go to other places to buy drugs. They don't have to do that anymore.

So we have favored nations. So that's what we have. And it's one of the biggest days I think anybody will ever have. We're talking about massive numbers, and the numbers are going to get even better with a little time.

And I will say, Albert, I think that the drug companies are going to be the same. You're going to—you know, the world. We're really competing against the world, so they have more people. So we'll come down a lot, and the world is going to go up a little bit. And the end result is you're going to, I think, do the same business pretty much—maybe. You'll figure a way to do more business, I think, knowing you.

But I think the drug companies—we're going to come down a lot, the U.S. The U.S. will come down a lot. But the world, many more people, is going to go up a little bit, and it equalized. And it's a great tribute.

And I want to thank everybody up here. J.D., thank you for all your help too.

Vice President Vance. Yes, sir.

The President. And, Howard, great. Really great job. Thank you all very much.

Do you have any questions? How about we focus on this. It's so big, let's focus on this.

[Several reporters began asking questions at once.]

Yes, Brian [Brian Glenn, Real America's Voice].

Health Insurance Reforms/Prescription Drug Costs

Q. Yes. Mr. President, first of all, this kind of goes along with your America First campaign promises for lowering——

The President. Right.

Q. ——health care costs. On a day that it seems like we're going into a Government shutdown led by Democrats on the premise of providing health benefits to illegals, this seems to——

The President. Right.

Q. ——your move here is a stark contrast to that. Could the same principles that you did today apply to health insurance, to maybe lower the cost of health insurance? Many Americans are kind of struggling with that as well.

The President. Yes. And we're working on just that. A little different group, but we're working on just that. It could—I don't know to this extent.

You know, we have a pill—one pill, in particular, we're going to show you next week. It sells for $10 in other countries and $137 in the U.S. And that's coming down now to probably $15 or $18. They'll go up to $18. I think that's pretty much right, Albert. It's not you, but they'll go up to $18, and we'll come down from $135, or whatever, down to $18.

I mean, that's a massive number. Remember, I was the one that held a news conference because I lowered drug prices by one-quarter of 1 percent. I think it was one-eighth of 1 percent, but it was the only one in 28 years that brought drug prices down for the year. But it was a very small number.

Now we're talking about you're going to see one over 1,000 percent. Look at these numbers.

So—and this has a big—a big impact, even on the discussion that we'll have with Chuck Schumer, who was here yesterday, along with the—a very nice gentleman, who I didn't really know. You know who I'm talking about. The two of them came, and they—we had a good discussion, and we're going to see what happens. We're going to see what happens.

But this has a huge impact on that, because these numbers are going to bring Medicaid—we talk about Obamacare. Obamacare is a failure. Obamacare is not good. It's not—it's there, but relative to other health care programs, it's in the lower 20 percent. It's not good.

And I asked the Democrat representatives, "What do you think about coming up with a better health care?" This actually allows you to do that, because the—you know, the cost of prescription medicine is a big—I guess, a very big—more than 50 percent the cost of what we're talking about.

So we might be able to do something like that. This is a big—this is one of the biggest news conferences, from a medical standpoint, that I think has ever been had by any administration.

Yes, please.

Pharmaceutical Industry

Q. Mr. President, thank you. I'm curious: Where are the other companies, other than Pfizer? Are you expecting them to come along later?

The President. They're all with us. And I was honored to have Albert be the first. He's done a fantastic job with—as you know, with the COVID. He did a fantastic job with a lot of things. He's a leader, and Pfizer is right at the top. You know, it's there.

Eli Lilly has been fantastic also—your friend, my friend. And they're all coming in over the next week. We're making deals with all of them. And I said if we don't make a deal, then we're going to tariff them an extra 5, 6, 7, 8 percent, whatever the difference is, and we'll take it that way.

So we took away the advantage. By the fact that we have tariffs, we took away the advantage that they would have of just saying no, and we couldn't do anything about it. If they do that, what we do is, we'd put a tariff on them of an equivalent amount, and we take it that way. And nobody wants to play that game. So——

Tariffs

Q. Are you still planning to impose——

The President. So they're going to be—they're all going to be good.

Q. Are you still planning to impose——

The President. We didn't have to mention that——

Q. ——those tariffs tomorrow?

The President. ——to Albert. I—well, maybe I whispered it to him very slightly, you know? [Laughter] We had to give ourselves a little bit of an advantage, right?

But no—but the tariffs played a big role, because they know that's what's going to happen.

Tariff Revenue

Q. Can you share—you mentioned the tariff—the exemption of the 232s, but can you share a timeline for when we can expect the results of that 232 investigation?

The President. I'll let Howard answer that question, please.

Secretary Lutnick. Sure. So, while we're negotiating with these companies, we're going to let them play out and finish these negotiations, because they are the most important thing to the American people. So we are standing by, helping, and working with them. But the driver of the 232 outcomes is our HHS team because, I mean, look what they've accomplished today.

So we are on their side, helping them. That is the model that's going to drive.

The President. And you have to understand, Albert is spending $70 billion that he wouldn't be spending because of the tariffs, let's say, and other reasons. I think he liked the winner of November 5, in all fairness, but because of the tariffs. And that wouldn't happen—he's not going to pay any tariffs, because when he moves here, there are no tariffs. So he won't be paying tariffs. That's the beauty of it.

If you move here, there are no tariffs, and we have over $17 trillion, Albert—you believe these numbers? So Biden had less than a trillion for four years. We have over $17 trillion for essentially 8 months. Pretty amazing.

Prescription Drug Costs

Q. When will prices come down, Mr. President? When can Americans——

The President. Immediately they're going to start coming down. Drug price will—they'll be starting immediately.

Yes.

2026 Midterm Elections

Q. Mr. President, can you speak to what impact you think this reduction in drug prices will have on midterms coming up?

The President. I think it's going to have a huge—I said, if we can pull this off before midterms—I've wanted to do it from the beginning, from my first day in the first term. And we were doing so well. We had the greatest economy we've ever had. Everything was good.

And then we were ready to do this, which is complex and big. It's a big change. But what happened is COVID came, and we focused on COVID. We focused on COVID very hard with Albert, with the other companies, with everybody. Regeneron was a great thing. You know, we did a lot of therapeutics that were fantastic.

And so we focused on that. And I said, "If I pull this off again, the first thing I'm going to do"—and you know, we've been working on this really for 8 months. This is a very big deal. This is a big shock to the system. But it's not as much as I said.

They're going to go up—the world is going to go up a little bit. We're going to come down a lot. But now it's fair. We're going to—we're going to be paying the same thing.

Yes, please.

Insulin Prices/Prescription Drug Costs

Q. President Trump, in your first term when you cut the price of insulin, Biden later came in, he tried to steal credit for that.

The President. Yes.

Q. Do you think that—do you worry that the Democrats are going to try to steal credit for these historic cuts?

The President. Yes, I think I do. It's very—I really appreciate your question, because I did—I cut the price of insulin down to $35. And the problem is, with many of these things—now, in this case, it's going to be pretty quick, but oftentimes, you'll do something medically, because of the process, and it won't be seen for 2 or 3 years. That happened also with a couple—I could say four different things, but just if you talk about insulin. So it was $200, $300, $500, and you couldn't get it, and I got it down to $35.

And I said, "I hope I win the next election because, otherwise, whoever wins is going to take credit for it." Well, what happened is, we did win the election. [Laughter] We did great. But unfortunately, it didn't work out that way from a practical standpoint.

And Biden—when I saw him get up and take credit for the $35, and even less, insulin that was a thousand percent lower than what it was just previous, boy, I tell you, I didn't like it. I didn't like it.

So I did the best I could to let them know we did it, because we want to be given credit. But we are the ones that got insulin down to that number. And you're right, they tried to take credit for it. They had nothing to do—in fact, they didn't even know what happened. All of a sudden, the insulin price kicked in at $35, and they asked Biden about it. He had no idea what the hell they were talking about.

But after they explained and—they didn't really explain to him, because he was not capable, really, of understanding. But when they went out and talked about it, they acted like it was a great feat by Biden. It had nothing to do with him.

And it continues, and we'll get it down even further. But insulin was—people weren't taking it, I would imagine. They just——

[Secretary Kennedy sneezed.]

——they couldn't take—God bless you, Bobby.

Secretary Kennedy. Excuse me.

The President. I hope I didn't catch COVID just there. [Laughter]

[The President turned to Mr. Bourla.]

Tell me you have Paxlovid.

Mr. Bourla. [Inaudible]

The President. Paxlovid.

Mr. Bourla. I have it here. [Laughter]

The President. He's got Paxlovid. [Laughter] Give me a Paxlovid immediately.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act/Illegal Immigration

Q. While Nancy Pelosi is ignoring what you're doing for the American people, she's going after your administration for cutting taxpayer-funded health care for illegal aliens. Last night——

The President. Who said——

Q. Last night.

The President. Who is doing that?

Q. Nancy Pelosi. She went on NBC last night, dropped a bunch of F-bombs, told Republicans to go "F" themselves. Has she lost her mind?

The President. Very nice. Look, we have done an unbelievable job medically. Just this, if you did nothing else—and we've done a lot, like the insulin. But just this, nobody can ever catch this. This is the biggest price reduction times maybe 10 times, 15 times than has ever been given before. And this is going to have a huge impact.

You know, as I said, Obamacare is not a good thing. It's been bad, and I'd like to make it better. I told them—I spoke to a lot of people, a lot of Democrats recently. I said: "Why don't we change it? We can make Obamacare much better. We could come up with a new system that would be much better, less expensive for the people and better."

This is maybe the biggest breakthrough, because, you know, when you're talking about the prescription drugs, that's a big part of it.

So we're going to look. This is prescription, but we're going to be looking at that. We could come up—and through this whole thing—you know, because I don't know, we'll probably have a shutdown, because one of the things they want to do is they want to give incredible Medicare—Cadillac—the Cadillac Medicare—to illegal immigrants. And what that does is it keeps them coming into our country, and—like they do in California. And no country can afford that. No country.

And we have the border stopped up. We have it closed. We had nobody for 4 months. Zero. Zero people came in. That wasn't me. That's the—by the authorities, who happen to be liberally oriented.

But just think of that: We have people offering health care to people all over the world that they can't afford to pay. And that's the Democrats. And what happens, what that does is, it brings people into the country because they want to come in for the health care. But no country can afford it, and they can't afford it.

So we cannot allow them to charge tremendous amounts of money for health care for people that aren't even citizens, and in many cases, they come in from prisons, jails, and mental institutions. And we can't let that happen.

So we have a big fight over that. We have a fight over open borders. They still want open borders. We're having a fight over men in women's sports, if you believe it. You would have thought they would have learned that it's not a good issue.

And we have a fight in transgender, as you know. Transgender for everybody. And that—when you talk medically, that's a lot of money too. That's a lot of—those operations are—those operations are bad.

So those things are also being discussed right now. I mean, can you imagine we're actually talking about open borders? And we now have a great border, and we have a great country.

Our country was dead 1 year ago. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Big difference.

Yes.

Potential Lapse in Federal Government Appropriations/Office of Management and Budget Director Russell T. Vought

Q. Mr. President, what does it say about the state of the Democrat Party, when they have a 33 percent approval—favorability rating, on average, in recent months, and they're willing to shut down the Government over health care for illegals?

The President. I don't know, they are shutting it down. We're not shutting it down. We don't want it to shut down, because we have the greatest period of time ever. I told you, we have $17 trillion being invested. So the last person that wants to shut down is us.

Now, with that being said, we can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.

And you know all—you all know Russell Vought. He's become very popular recently because he can trim the budget to a level that you couldn't do any other way. So they're taking a risk by having a shutdown because, because of the shutdown, we can do things, medically and other ways, including benefits. We can cut large numbers of people out.

We don't want to do that, but we don't want fraud, waste, and abuse. And you know, we're cutting that.

But they want to have illegal aliens come into our country and get massive health care at the cost to everybody else, and we don't have it. And that's—I would say the number one reason that they want to strike is to get illegal immigrants health care.

And you know, Gavin Newsom wants that too in California, and it's destroying California. We can't have that. We're not going to let it happen.

Most Favored Nation Pricing for Prescription Drugs

Q. Do you have a plan for dealing with drug companies that are responding to MFN only by raising prices overseas, as opposed to lowering prices in the U.S.?

The President. No, I—no, they're responding. I understand that question very well, but they're responding by lowering prices. They're helped by lowering prices.

You know, there's a price at which they can't sell, and they're helped by lowering prices. In the case of Albert and in the case of Eli Lilly, the fact is, our prices are coming down massively. You see, that's just a few of the basics. But they're coming down much more than that with many drugs and over a thousand percent. Think of that: over a thousand percent reduction. And we'll show you that next week, because we have some of them on the board next week where you have over 1000-percent price reduction.

No, it's—what's going to happen is you're going to have—the market will kick in. This way, the market kicks in. The other way, it was just basically—it was just a form of control. You were stifling the market.

Yes.

Q. Following up on Brian, sir.

Federal Government Appropriations

Q. At this—this point, is a shutdown inevitable? And how would you describe the negotiations with Democrats yesterday? Are more meetings scheduled?

The President. So nothing is inevitable, but I would say it's probably likely because they want to give health care to illegal immigrants, which will destroy health care for everybody else in our country. And I didn't see them bend even a little bit when I said we can't do that. Okay?

Q. Can I ask a question of Dr. Oz—Administrator Oz?

The President. Yes.

Q. If there is no deal reached on the Obamacare subsidies with—with the Democrats, is there anything that CMS can do to lower those—to mitigate the increases of those Obamacare subsidies?

Administrator Oz. Not really, but we have time. We have time till the end of the year to make the changes I know the President is evaluating.

But we should have a clean continuing resolution get past this budget process, as it has happened so many times, and allow the President and leadership some freedom to be able to put some good ideas in front of the legislative bodies.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act/Illegal Immigration/Law Enforcement Support in U.S. Cities/U.S. Armed Forces Recruitment Efforts

Q. Mr. President, undocumented immigrants——

The President. We do have—we actually do have time for that.

Q. ——they're not eligible for the health care subsidies that Democrats are demanding. So can you clarify: What are you talking about when you say Democrats want to protect their health care?

The President. So, when an illegal person comes in—a person who came into our country illegally, therefore breaking the law—and look, we all have big hearts. I have a bigger heart than you do. They're all breaking the law, and they're coming into our country. And we just, as a country, cannot afford to take care of millions of people who have broken the law coming in.

We want them to come into our country, but we want them to come in legally. Now we have a strong border—very strong border—thanks to Kristi and Tom Homan and the whole group. They've done an amazing job at the border. I mean, we had a border that was reckless. We had a border that was a disaster. They were coming in by the millions. I say 25 million people. You're saying less, but I say 25 million people came in illegally. And no system can take care of the health care of all of those people that came in.

Now, a lot of them have gone out. We have over 11,000 murderers. We got many of them out. Many of those people have been taken out of the country, brought back to where they came from—in some cases, put in prison, because they're so dangerous, we don't want to take them out. We have to watch them. We don't want them coming back.

But if you look at what's happened in Washington, DC, right now, it is such a place—I just drove through it, and it's clean and nice and beautiful, and people are walking around, and they're not afraid of being mugged. We haven't had murders. We haven't had anything happen in a long time. It took us 12 days to make it very good. It took us 20 days to make it beautiful.

And now we're going to Memphis, but I think we should always keep a presence here, because if we don't keep a presence, it's going to come back. Never like it was, because we got rid of 1,700 career criminals. You know what that is? Career—one career criminal can give you a lousy reputation for danger, because they commit many crimes a day, in some cases.

But Washington, DC, is an unbelievable example of what can happen. And now we're going, as you know, to Memphis, which was very similar to Washington. Very dangerous. And we're there, and we're working along very well with the Governor, the mayor.

A lot of these Democrat mayors—you know, what they don't want—they don't want to have us do well, because if we do well, it makes them look bad. And they shouldn't feel that way.

If I were a Democrat and I was a Governor or a mayor, I'd be calling Trump. I'd say: "Get your troops over here. Get your—just help." Because the Mayor of Washington is getting a lot of credit for what we did, you know? A lot of credit.

But the beauty is—isn't it nice? Seriously, you walk down the street, you're not going to be mugged. You're not going to be hit. We had a meeting about 3, 4 months ago, and I was saying to the media, "How many of you people have been threatened or mugged or accosted during your walk to the White House?" And they said, "We don't walk to the White House anymore."

But the answer was—remember, Brian?—almost everybody's—oh, you're—look at this guy. They even attacked this big, strong guy, right? Didn't you get attacked?

Q. But he had a gun, though, Mr. President, all due respect.

The President. Did you—but, yeah, just take a look at the other guy, right? What happened to the other guy? I don't know. [Laughter] Those other guys are pretty tough. They're tough with a gun in their hand, right?

Q. Yes, they are.

The President. And yes, you were hit pretty hard.

Q. Yes.

The President. But almost everybody was. And now nobody.

Anybody been accosted in the last three weeks? If I would have said that 6 months ago, half the hands would have been raised up. No, we have a very safe city now.

It's—the country is going to be safe. We're doing one at a time, and we'll be going to Chicago. I told you the story. Union Pacific, head of the railroad, he knows this country very well. Started off as a very low-rung employee of the Union Pacific. He's now chairman. He came to me, and he said: "Sir, save Chicago. It's a great city. It's going down fast."

They had 11 people killed over the last couple of weeks. Eleven people killed, forty-eight shot. That's not a city. That's a war zone. There's no city in the world like that.

And then we have to listen to this Pritzker get up. I know him well. They threw him out of his business, and—the family threw him out of the business because he's a loser. But we have to listen to Pritzker get up. He should call me and say, "Get the troops in."

You ever hear that? Eleven people over a week and a half killed. And I think it's 48—when you add it up, 48 people shot. And then I have to listen to a Governor say how nice it is. "It's a wonderful experience." No.

What is a wonderful experience is DC. People are eating in the restaurants. They just opened two new restaurants, which hasn't opened—worked in years. And we had it pretty good four years ago. We were just getting ready to do this, but we did it right.

And you know, we have a big win—victory in the Supreme Court. It's called "merit." And so, that includes the military. Our soldiers—did you see what they look like? These guys, they look like serious, serious soldiers. They weren't playing games, and they went in there, and they did a fantastic job.

And Washington, DC, is now a beautiful, safe city. The restaurants are thriving. The people are walking down the street holding their husband or their boyfriend's hand, and they're not worried about being raped or mugged or shot at. And it's been an amazing thing. And we'll do that in every city. We'll do them sort of one at a time. We'll do a couple at a time.

And we have a tremendous force because, as you know, in recruitment numbers—when we put out—2 years ago, when Biden would put out recruitment, nobody would join. Nobody wanted to be in the military. Nobody wanted to be police.

We just—it was just announced this morning—you probably saw my speech over with the military, with the generals, admirals—record numbers of people signing up for the Navy, the Army, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Space Force. I love Space Force. That was my baby. But we have record numbers of people signing up, and that includes police department, fire department.

So, you know, it's been an amazing thing.

Well, we're going to have another meeting next week on this. We have another great company coming in, similar kind of numbers. But we're going to show you some 1,000-percent drops in prices. There has never been anything like this in the history of medicine, and it's an honor.

And, Albert, I want to thank you, and I want to thank everybody behind me, because you are a great team. We have a great team. Everybody says, "You have a great Cabinet." It's a great team. So thank you, Bobby.

Thank you very much. Thank you, everybody.